Friday, 1 May 2015

Lotus F1 Team Spanish Grand Prix Preview Q&A with Pastor Maldonado

(Lotus F1 Team)

The Barcelona Circuit De Catalunya holds special memories
for Pastor Maldonado as it here where the Venezuelan claimed his maiden Grand
Prix victory and to date his only victory driving for the Williams F1 Team in
2012.

Maldonado heads to this year’s race hoping to open his
account for 2015 with the Lotus F1 Team as it has been his team mate Romain
Grosjean who has picked up the points for the Enstone outfit so far this season.

Taking part in a Q&A with the Enstone outfit prior to next weekend’s Grand
Prix, Maldonado was asked:

The Spanish Grand Prix holds a special place for you…

It’s very special –
mostly because we see a lot of Venezuelan support there, also because it’s the
first race back in Europe, and of course, because it’s nice to have won there.

Hopefully we’ll see
a good result there for the team and some points for me!

Tell us about the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Overall Catalunya is
tough for the cars, drivers and teams because everyone knows the track so well
and you have to fight for every thousandth of a second. There are obviously races
that are much closer to Venezuela in a geographic sense, but Barcelona is special
for me because there is a huge community of Venezuelans close by and of course my
mother tongue is Spanish. So I hope to see a lot of flags around the track and
some great support as usual. It’s always good to race in front of your fans and
I am determined to continue my good record here. The circuit has certainly been
very good for me in the past, with the win in 2012 being the highlight. A top
ten in qualifying will be our first focus and then it’ll be a very tough race
in terms of tyre management, with a lot of pit stops and strategy.

What will be your target this year in Barcelona?

To win…! The aim is
always to get 100% from the package, to know we’ve achieved the best possible.
So a win might not be on the cards just yet but we are definitely able to fight
for good points.

How would you review your first four races of the season – what have
been the positives and where can improvements be found?

It was a complicated
start to the season, the first four races were tough. It wasn’t easy to be hit
by other drivers for both Australia and Malaysia! I think we learnt a lot from
the first two races however as we made a good jump in performance by the
Chinese Grand Prix because we had learnt so much about our car. We are closer
to our rivals, the teams we’re targeting for the championship, and our race
pace improved significantly. It’s getting better and better.

How would you evaluate the E23 Hybrid this first quarter of the 2015
season?

It’s a good car. Immediately,
the first day we tested the E23, the potential was clearly there. There are
still areas to develop but it’s looking very good. If we go back just a few
months ago to where we were with the E22, it’s a huge improvement in
comparison. It’s not just the change of engine, the chassis is working much
better. The entire package has good potential for this season.

You’ve been here at Enstone this week to do some simulator work, how
important is it for your and the team’s preparation for the next race?

It’s very important.
We start with a debrief in a way, where we compare the simulator runs with the
race we have just completed, to make sure that the information we get from the
sim is as accurate as possible. If not, we work to make it more realistic, and
if it’s okay, we move on to testing various things for the next races.

What do you remember about the win in 2012?

It was a great day
in my career, a strong race and victory over Fernando Alonso in his home event.
We really deserved it because we did it on merit and under big pressure from
the Ferrari all race. People forget that we were outside the top ten on Friday
and then everything came together. We qualified second - pole after Lewis Hamilton
was disqualified - and I knew there was a chance to win the race. I just felt
so calm and ready to win. That weekend, after being 17th in first practice,
shows why you must never give up in Formula 1. It also gave me more confidence
because my first year in F1 had been difficult, but as soon as the car was
competitive I was up there, fighting with the top drivers. My mentality changed
and this now drives me forward when times are tough.